We received dozens of e-mails and more than 60 posts from enthusiastic bakers who either grew up on Southern layer cakes or were ready to jump in and make some. One common question is which flour to use. In Alabama, White Lily is the only choice. It’s a soft wheat flour with about 8 percent protein, which makes for tender cakes. (Higher protein means more gluten and cakes with more structure. Less protein means more tender cakes.)

I live in New York, where sources for White Lily are largely limited to Dean & DeLuca. The price for a bag would make the cake ladies of Alabama roll their eyes toward heaven over the state of things up North. Instead I used cake flour, which is finely ground and has a bit less protein than even White Lily. It’s what Rose Levy Beranbaum, the baker and cookbook author, recommends. But Shirley O. Corriher, the biochemist turned goddess of baking science, cites Bruce Healy’s love of unbleached Gold Medal All-Purpose. Mr. Healy is a French pastry chef who bakes steam-leavened genoise (as opposed to cakes leavened with baking powder). That flour has a protein content of between 10 and 12 percent.

As Ms. Corriher says in her book, “BakeWise,” she is a bit baffled by which flour to use: “Perhaps this is a matter of personal opinion.” She encourages experimentation. I suggest cake flour, just to be on
the safe side. This is something you need to think long and hard about, people. Or not. You could just do what I did, which was buy some cake flour and hope for the best.

A few other cake bits. On the Chocolate Little Layer Cake recipe, each layer is separately baked. Now, one cake I made had only 10 layers. Another had 12. Mrs. Martha Meadows, who gave me the recipe, got to 15. This is going to vary. But I promise you will get at least 10 layers if you use three-quarters of a cup for each layer, and you’ll probably get more like 12.

(By the way, I heard from a number of readers who think there is a link between the little layer cakes of Alabama and the Doberge cakes of New Orleans. But while the Doberge cake has many layers, the layers are filled with pudding, not icing. The Doberge cakes have a completely different heritage; they descend from the Hungarian dobos torte.)

Last, a lot of people wanted a recipe for Lane cake, which is very specific to Southeast Alabama. It’s an old recipe with lots of egg whites in the batter. The yolks are used to make a boiled filling that, at least in the more modern versions, is thick with pecans, coconut and raisins. Usually, there’s some kind of booze in there, as well. Scout, in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” says, “Miss Maudie made a Lane cake so full of shinny it made me tight.” Shinny, of course, being slang for liquor. Most often bourbon, in the case of the Lane cake.

Scott Peacock, who grew up on Lane cake, has a great version in “The Gift of Southern Cooking,” which he wrote with Edna Lewis. Food and Wine magazine reprinted it here.